Activists demonstrate against domestic abuse, rape and sexual harassment in Beirut on Dec. 7, 2019. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT – Alleged serial harasser Jaafar Attar attended a court session Thursday morning with his lawyer. Attar’s trial was due to take place in November at the Beirut Justice Palace, but was postponed due to a court employees' strike.
Here’s what we know:
• “Attar’s lawyer asked to review the documents and CDs [of evidence] available at the court for the investigation,” said Ayman Raad, the victims’ lawyer. The court session was adjourned until April 14 after the suspect's lawyer asked for copies of the evidence.
• The group of women who brought charges must come to the next session for “interrogation and confrontation,” Raad said, adding that the case would then close and a judgment would be passed.
• A group of seven victims filed a lawsuit against Attar in May. The police had already opened a criminal investigation before the lawsuit and last September the public prosecutor formally charged Attar with sexual harassment and referred the case to the criminal court in Beirut.
• This is the first case to be tried under Lebanon’s new sexual harassment law, adopted in January 2021.